Nokia, LG, Samsung and MasterCard to turn cell phone into wallet

Frederick Roberts, 25th April 2007

A consortium of companies including Nokia, LG, Samsung, Sony and MasterCard are to turn cell phones into mobile wallets, allowing consumers to pay for goods and services simply by swiping their phone as they would a credit card.

Consumers will be able to use a phone as a wallet or as an access card simply by waving it over a wireless reader as they would a credit card, similar to systems in use in Japan and Hong Kong.

"After several fragmented initiatives, the mobile phone industry is now uniting around a single approach to enabling the mobile phone to be used, instead of cash or plastic credit card, at point of sale," Rob Conway, CEO of the GSM Association, the global trade association for cell phone operators, told Reuters.